As Rylan was swept into his past, Elysia still held the line on the wall, unaware of what had happened to her teammates. All four of them had been pulled away to strange places, and from the outside, it looked like only a few seconds had passed.
She continued to fire, one sniper shot after another, trying to keep the attacking wolves at bay. Liora's vacuum spheres of air were still intact and functioning properly, which is why Elysia hadn't noticed anything unusual; she couldn't hear the subtle changes around her. The world sounded the same. The fight sounded the same.
"Something is not right here," she muttered as she squeezed off another round into the head of a lunging wolf.
No matter how much she scanned the field through her scope, she couldn't put her finger on it. There was a wrongness gnawing at her. She fired again, a clean shot to a wolf's stomach. The round hit, and almost instantly the mysterious mist curled around the wound and knitted it shut.
The power of that mist was absolute; it repaired flesh, sealed poison, healed every kind of wound with a speed that made her stomach drop. There seemed to be no limit to its regeneration.
Where's the big one? she murmured, momentarily forgetting the Alpha that had stopped howling minutes ago. In the chaos, she had almost lost track of him.
She swept the scope across the place where she'd last seen him. There he was.There you are, she thought, then paused. The Alpha was sitting, not howling, not pacing, merely sitting while the lesser wolves battered at the wall in front of him. He made himself small, as if bored; the pack's frenzy rolled on like a tide that didn't require his strength.
He is resting, she told herself, forcing her eyes away from the thought of looking straight into his face. She kept her gaze low, refusing to meet those eyes.
Why is he sitting there like it's no big deal? These creatures want nothing more than to rip us apart. So why is he so calm, despite having us standing on the wall right in front of him?
She studied the relaxed wolf, searching for an answer. Perhaps he knows he can't cross the wall and is using his subordinates to do the work for him. Or maybe… something else.
Then a cold realization struck her. No, it's impossible for him to sit idle while his pack attacks. That's not in their nature. The Unknown descended to exterminate humanity; their instinct is to kill and consume. This stillness had to mean something else.
She remembered what her captain had taught her. The lesson fell into place like a sharp tool: it's doing something I don't understand. My gut says something's wrong here.
Elysia scanned her team and saw Varick and Jaxon apparently acting normal, positioned, weapons up, faces set, just as they'd been moments ago. But she failed to notice something crucial: all of them had stopped firing. The vacuum spheres on their ears, Liora's wards, were still in place and functioning, and because of that, Elysia couldn't hear the silence. The guns had gone quiet, and she alone kept firing.
If the Alpha is sitting there doing something evil, I have to stop it before it succeeds, she thought. Perhaps a bullet to the abdomen would break its stance.
She reached back to the magazine pouch on her belt and pulled out a large mag, the heavy kind filled with rounds coated in that strange purple liquid. Her hands moved with practiced calm, even as her pulse thudded.
She loaded the magazine into her sniper, fingers sure and steady. I have to stay aware — don't look into its eyes. Aim for the lower body, aim for the abdomen.
Elysia adjusted her scope, keeping her chin down, trying not to let the Alpha's presence draw her gaze upward. She lined up on the Alpha's lower body and began to focus.
But as she shifted the crosshair to the wolf's flank, a small brown wolf materialized at the Alpha's feet, eyes blazing like red bulbs, the glow stark even in daylight. She hadn't seen it before; it must have slipped out from the pack's chaos.
What, her breath caught.
Her eyes met the small wolf's glare through the scope. For an instant, she thought she could predict the animal's movement, then the field tilted. The world spun. The air thinned.
Before she could deduce anything, the world shifted under her again, and the darkness claimed her, pulling her into that same strange, private place where memory and terror overlapped.
After a few minutes, she found herself standing on the surface of a deep, endless sea, as if the water itself had chosen to hold her weight. It stretched infinitely in every direction, silent and shimmering beneath a gray, colorless sky.
"What… happened?" she whispered, her voice lost in the vastness. She turned slowly, searching for any sign of land, of life, of something to ground her, but there was nothing. Only water. Only silence. She was utterly alone.
The sea beneath her was so clear, so impossibly deep, that she could almost see eternity fading below her feet. It made her wonder, Where am I now? The people inside the cities had no idea such oceans existed, no idea there could be bodies of water so vast they could drown a thousand cities at once.
"What… where am I?" she murmured again, her voice trembling.
The sound of the waves clashing against one another echoed endlessly around her, and the cold wind lashed at her skin like invisible whips. The mingling sound of crashing water and howling air pressed against her chest until her heart began to sink, heavy, uncertain, and terrified.
But before anything could happen to her, a voice echoed faintly in her ears, soft yet piercing, snapping her out of the illusion that held her captive.
In the next instant, the ocean vanished.
Elysia found herself standing before a door, that door, the one she remembered from when she was fifteen. The faint scent of old wood and the familiar warmth of sunlight slipping through the window hit her all at once.
She blinked, stunned.
There, in front of her, was a scene frozen in time, a woman with long, dark red hair, dressed in light green clothes, sitting on a bed and gently embracing a young girl from behind. The girl, about fifteen, wore a white frock and had the same deep red hair.
Elysia's breath caught in her throat. She knew them.
It was her.And the woman, the one smiling softly as she held the younger Elysia close, was her mother, Eris.
Elysia stood in the doorway, motionless, her eyes glistening.
"How stupid I was back then… thinking about things like that," she whispered to herself, smiling faintly as she watched her mother speak to her younger self in that calm, loving tone.
For a moment, she didn't question why she was here or what brought her back. She didn't care. She was simply… happy.Happy to relive this moment, the one that once gave her the strength to keep living.
Eris' gentle voice filled the room as she continued speaking to the young Elysia, her hands resting protectively around her shoulders. The warmth in that smile made the scene almost too real.
And just like that, without realizing it, Elysia's surroundings shifted once more. The wooden floor beneath her feet dissolved into cold stone. The warmth faded. The noise of battle returned.
She blinked. She was back, standing on the wall again, rifle in hand, just as if nothing had happened.
"What… just happened?" she whispered, her heartbeat unsteady. "Where was I?"
As her eyes darted around, she saw Varick and Jaxon nearby, both clutching their heads, disoriented and trembling, their expressions mirroring her own confusion.
Something had happened to all of them. And none of them could explain what.
But Liora and Rylan were both still now.Rylan lay motionless on the wall, his back facing the sky, while Liora was on her knees, unmoving, her body trembling slightly as if caught between two worlds.
"Rylan! Liora!" Elysia shouted, panic seeping into her voice as she rushed toward them. Something was wrong, terribly wrong.
Seeing Elysia's reaction, Varick and Jaxon immediately followed, their weapons lowered, confusion and fear written across their faces.
As Elysia reached Liora, her heart sank.
Liora's eyes were hollow, empty, staring blankly at the clear blue sky. Tears streamed down her cheeks in a steady, silent flow. Her lips were shut tight, trembling faintly, as if she were trapped in a nightmare she couldn't wake from.
"Liora, what happened?" Elysia's voice cracked as she knelt in front of her, gently patting her cheeks. "Come back to your senses!"
No response.
Elysia's gentle pats turned desperate, tapping, then pinching, her movements trembling. But Liora didn't move. She didn't blink. Her hands remained pressed against the cold stone floor, her sniper rifle hanging loosely from her shoulder, swaying with the wind.
The tears kept falling.
Elysia's breath quickened, her voice lowering to a whisper."Liora… please…"
The silence that followed was heavier than any scream.
In the meantime, Varick and Jaxon had reached Rylan, who was lying face down on the wall.
"Rylan! What happened to you?" Varick shouted through his earpiece as he and Jaxon hurried to his side. They grabbed him by the shoulders, trying to pull him over.
When they finally managed to turn him onto his back, both of them froze.
Rylan's eyes were closed, his expression twisted in silent agony. Though they couldn't hear his voice because of the vacuum seals around their ears, they could see the faint, uneven tremors of his chest, the small hitches of breath that came with crying.
He was crying.Crying like a child, lost, terrified, and trapped in a nightmare he couldn't wake from.
"Rylan, come on, man! Wake up! It's just a dream! Wake up!" Varick's voice shook as he leaned over him, gently tapping his cheeks, then slapping his chest. "Wake up, damn it!"
But Rylan didn't respond. His body remained limp, his face wet with tears that kept streaming down his temples.
Varick's movements slowed, his frustration turning into sorrow.Beside him, Jaxon's jaw clenched tightly.
Both of their eyes grew teary as they looked down at their friend, the most determined, hardworking person they knew, reduced to this broken, trembling state.
Neither of them knew what kind of nightmare he was trapped in… or what kind of past could bring him to tears like that.
"Quick, give me your water bottle!" Varick shouted suddenly, panic returning to his voice.
Jaxon fumbled at his belt, pulling out the bottle and tossing it toward him. Without hesitation, Varick uncapped it and splashed all of it across Rylan's face.
For a second, they both waited, watching, hoping for even the smallest sign of life.
Nothing.
"Shit… nothing happened," Varick muttered, his voice breaking with disappointment.
Jaxon's gaze softened. He sighed, his tone quiet and filled with pain."It seems his past… wasn't an easy one to overcome."
Varick didn't answer. He didn't need to. Both of them knew what was happening now.
Somehow, all of them had fallen under the Alpha Wolf's illusion, a mental hex powerful enough to drag their minds into the depths of their own memories.Only Elysia, Varick, and Jaxon had managed to break free.
But Rylan and Liora were still trapped inside.
And judging by the tears on their faces and the pain carved into their expressions…Their pasts were not the kind anyone could escape easily, or forget.
Seeing the reactions from Varick and Jaxon, Elysia knew that Rylan, too, was lost in the deep maze of illusions created by the Wolf's leader. She continued to slap Liora's face, trying to make her snap out of it, but every slap and every pinch was doing nothing. There was no reaction to her body sensations at all.
"Wake up, Liora! Wake up! You can't lose yourself like this! Wake up, damn it!"Still, no reaction came from Liora.
On the other hand, Varick and Jaxon were also trying their best to wake Rylan up somehow. Elysia continued to slap Liora's cheeks as two wolves crashed in front of the wall where Elysia was holding her. The wolves continued their attacks on the spots where all the soldiers were now stationed.
Ignoring all the wolves, Elysia, Varick, and Jaxon kept doing their best to wake them up, but nothing seemed to work."There has to be some other way to break the mental hex. I have to try something," Elysia thought as she started to brainstorm ideas to break the spell.
"Sergeant Varick, Jaxon!" she shouted through the earpiece."Yes, Captain!" both of them answered in unison.
"Tie both of them with a strong rope and stop their movements!"Both of them looked at each other and hurriedly jumped into action. They knew there was no time to ask questions; only actions could help now.Both of them found the ropes a few feet away, the same ones used by army personnel to climb down the wall.
Varick tied Rylan's whole body in a way that made it impossible for him to move, and Jaxon did the same.Elysia also helped to tie down Liora's entire body.
"Now that their movements are sealed, I have to think about breaking the mental hex. But the question is, how?"Elysia thought to herself, looking around, when she noticed Jaxon from time to time clutching his head. Then the realization struck her.
Wait a minute. Varick, Jaxon, and I were also under the influence of the mental hex, so how did we manage to escape it? Why was our mental hex weaker compared to both of theirs?
She thought for a moment, but deep down she already knew. She came back because her past wasn't as difficult as the people of the Grind. And both Rylan and Liora were from the Grind.
"And we know it's using the memories of a person to trap them…" she murmured as she started walking back and forth, trying to come up with a way to save both of them.
"It can use the memories of one person. It can use the memories...It can use…"Her eyes widened. "It! That's it!"
And then all the pieces suddenly fell into place as a clear method appeared in front of her.